John chapter one. Being that today is Easter Sunday. There is no difference in Easter
Sunday and any other Sunday. We worship God exactly the same
way, no matter what day it is. But because of the mindset of
today, This verse of scripture kept coming to my mind. It's
John 1 verse 4. It says, in him was life. And the life was the light of men. In him was life. and the life was the light of
men. I want to just very simply enjoy
the first few verses of John 1. I came over here and I read
many, many verses. I was going to go deep into John
chapter 1, and I only made it to the first four verses, but
this is so enjoyable to me. John 1 is so enjoyable to me. This is so comfortable. There
are places in the scripture that we know and we quote and they
just feel so comforting and so comfortable. And this chapter
and these verses, they are so clear, just so very clear and
so truthful concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the revelation
of Jesus Christ. That's what it is. The revelation
of Jesus Christ. Don't turn, but in the book of
Revelation, chapter 19, describes the Lord Jesus Christ. It tells
us about the Lord Jesus Christ. And it says that His name is
called the Word of God. That's what
His name is. Revelation 19 tells us His name
is called the Word of God, Jesus Christ. He is the Word. He is the Word. And John 1 verse
1 right here says, In the beginning was the Word. In the beginning
was the word. One man said that is the relation
of Christ to time. If you want to relate Christ
to time, there it is. He is eternal. He's eternal. There's not a moment in time
that exists where Christ is or was not there. There is not a
moment that exists where Christ is not there. I like knowing
that. You can go as far back in your
imagination as it will take you. How far back will your imagination
take you? Go into, I say it all the time,
it's easier to go that way, into the future. But go back into
the past. How far can your mind go into
the never beginning eternity of time past? You'll never make it to a place
where Christ wasn't there. Never make it to a place. He's
not just from the beginning. He is in the beginning. He is in the beginning. In Revelation 22 verse 13, he
said, I am the beginning. I am the beginning. Verse one right here says, in
the beginning was the word and the word was with God. That's the relation of Christ
to the mind, the will, and the purpose of the Father. He said,
I can only do what the Father wills to do. That's all I can
do. Total agreement. Complete oneness. Do you enjoy the thought of that?
Never a disagreement. Never. Complete and total unity,
complete oneness with God. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God. Verse one goes on to say, and
the Word was God. That's the relation of Christ
to the Holy Trinity, the deity. of the Godhead. Christ is God
Himself. Christ is God Himself. I wish
more people knew that. We take that knowledge for granted.
Jesus Christ is God Almighty. Jesus Christ is not God's Son. We'll just pause and let that
soak in for a minute. Jesus Christ is not God's Son.
He is the Son of God. You say, well that sounds like
the same thing. It's not. It's not. The Father? Does Jesus Christ have a Father? Oh yeah, He said He did. Does
God the Father have a Son? Oh absolutely, He said He did.
But the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three equal members
of the Godhead. They three are in oneness and
unity, and they make up the fullness of God. Every time we say God,
there's only one God. But we're talking about three
persons. Three equal persons. One member of the Godhead is
not above another member of the Godhead. Every soul by nature
thinks of the Godhead in a vertical line. You got the Father, the
Son, and the Spirit. And that's not how it is. One member of the Godhead is
not more God than any other member of the Godhead. These three are
one. They are one. This one who came
to the earth is God himself. God himself. The one who was
born of a virgin. Try to get your mind around that.
The one who was born of a virgin and lived on this earth. Does
it not warm your heart to know that God walked this earth? The one who died on this earth. The one who rose again on this
earth. The one who was in the beginning
with God was God. God himself came down. God himself
was manifest in the flesh. I love that song, As poor wretched
sinners No God and no hope. It seemed there was no one to
help. But God in His mercy, salvation supplied, emptied heaven and
came down Himself and a ransom was found. God was manifest in
the flesh. Verse one says, in the beginning
was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God All things were made by Him, and without Him was not
anything made that was made. That's the relation of Christ
to the universe, to this entire universe. He is the Creator. All things were made by Him. All things were made by him.
As you go through the beginning of Genesis and you read about
everything that was made, it says, in the evening and the
morning were the first day, and then it talks about other things,
and it says, in the evening and the morning were the second day.
Most people naturally envision the Father being the one doing
all those things. And it is true, the Father was
with the Son, as was the Spirit. God said, let us make. That's what God said, let us
make. They were in unity and oneness. The Godhead was absolute
unity on everything that was created, but the creation itself
was made by the hands of Jesus Christ. When God formed man from the
dust of the ground, that was the hands of Jesus Christ. When
God said, let there be, that was the voice of Jesus Christ.
Hold your place right here and look at Colossians 1. Colossians 1, the last three
words of verse 13 say, his dear son, this is talking about Jesus
Christ, the son of God. Verse 14 says, in whom we have
redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins,
who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. When God walked with Adam in
the garden and slew a lamb after Adam and Eve sinned and made
coats of skin and covered them, all of that was Jesus Christ.
It was all Jesus Christ. Verse 14 says, in whom we have
redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins,
who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature,
for by him were all things created that are in heaven." I'm fascinated
with space. It is beautiful to me. You know,
you look at these telescopes that they have now, the Hubble
telescope, I don't know what the new one's called, but the
images are amazing. You see all of these You know,
beautiful galaxies and solar systems and all these things
that I can't understand or fathom. Jesus Christ did all of that.
He did every bit of that. Everything that the heaven contains. Verse 16 says, by him were all
things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and
invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities
or powers. It doesn't matter whether we're
talking about people or spirits. Does it not blow your mind to
know that there's a whole second dimension right here, right now?
There's a whole second dimension that we cannot see. Is that not
amazing to you? We can see people. We can see
nations fighting against nations. We can see the physical wars
that are taking place. But there's a spiritual world
with spiritual wars taking place right now that we cannot see
and we don't know anything about it. But God does. Jesus Christ does. He created
all of it. He is controlling all of it.
Why? Verse 16, for by Him were all
things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible
and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities
or powers, all things were created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things,
and by Him all things consist. And he is the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the preeminence. That means in
everything, he's number one. He's first. Go with me back to
John 1. Verse 1 says, in the beginning
was the word, And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was
life. In Him was life. Physical life,
spiritual life. In Him. was life. God created all things. God is
the one who gave life to every living animated thing that is
on this earth. From man to animals to plants
to organisms, bacterias, germs. All physical life came from Jesus
Christ. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
created Adam in the garden, He created him with not only physical
life, but spiritual life. Adam dwelled with God. Adam lived with God. But in the day that Adam sinned,
he lost his spiritual life. And it's hard for us to understand
this because we can't see tangibly that spiritual life. We see physical
life and everybody's alive and you got up and you got dressed
and you drove over here and, you know, you're planning on
doing things today and you're alive physically, physically. But the day that Adam sinned
against God, he lost his spiritual life. And that eventually led
to him losing his physical life. And that's the condition that
every man and woman is now in. Man was, in the beginning, man
was generated with life. But when he sinned, he died. He became dead in trespasses
and sins. And now the only hope that man
has is if God will give him or her spiritual life again. We
must be regenerated, born again, some people say. Look with me
at John chapter three. John three, verse one, it says,
there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the
Jews. The same came to Jesus by night
and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher
come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest
except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. Except a man be born from
above, He cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto
him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? And what he's saying is, how
does my flesh play a role in this? How does my flesh play
a role in this? And the Lord's about to tell
him, it doesn't. Verse five, Jesus answered, Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of
the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is
spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee,
you must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. He's saying it's of God. Verse
nine, Nicodemus answered and said unto him, how can these
things be? How can these things be? How can a man or woman be spiritually
born again, given spiritual life again? Verse 10, Jesus answered
and said unto him, art thou a master of Israel? And no, it's not these
things. You're a pastor of a church and
you don't know the answer to this. You're a religious leader
and you don't know the answer to this? Verse 11, verily, verily,
I say unto thee, we speak that we do know and testify that we
have seen and you receive not our witness. If I have told you
earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe if
I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to
heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of
Man, which is in heaven." What he's saying is no man is worthy
to enter up to heaven, but the one who came down from heaven.
Jesus Christ, verse 14, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. In another place he said, if
I be lifted up, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
if I be lifted up on a cross, you know the story of when the
children of Israel sinned against God and God sent deadly poisonous
snakes into their camp. And those snakes started biting
everybody and they were dying. And Moses went to the Lord to
beg God to have mercy on him. And the Lord told Moses, you
make a serpent out of brass and you wrap it around a pole and
you lift it up. And you tell all the people to
look to that serpent on a pole and look to doesn't just mean
see it. It doesn't just mean see it.
It means you cast all your hope of being healed on that serpent
on the pole. And the Lord said, whoever truly
looks to and believes on and hopes in that serpent lifted
up on the pole will live. You look and you live. What does all that mean? That
means in him is life. Sin is what killed us. Sin is what is killing us. Sin is what is killing us. But
Christ was made to be what was killing us, what is
killing us. He removed our sin from us by
being made sin. And every soul who receives faith
to see that and to believe that and to look to that and hope
in that will live. Life does not come by us earning
it. We can't earn it. We're dead. We're dead. Life
comes by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ only. Verse 14, as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish but have eternal life. Eternal life. Go with me back
to John chapter one. Verse four says, in him was life. And the life was the light of
men. That's the relation of Christ
to all of God's people. He is their life. He is their
light, like a beautiful sunny day. He is our happiness. He's our warmth. He is our health. He's our knowledge. He's our
way. In Christ we have our all. In Him was life. In Him is life. In Him will forever be life. The Lamb is the spiritual light
thereof. By Him we see. In Him we see. Through Him we
see. We see creation. We see salvation. We see wisdom. We see righteousness. We see sanctification. We see
redemption. We see it all. We see everything
we need to see in Him. We see that He's everything.
Everything we need to sustain our life forever. In Him we live. In Him Our life is hid with God in Him,
and He will forever be our light, forever. He's never gonna stop
being our light. I love the fact that there's
no night in glory. You know what that means? Christ
is always there. He'll forever be there. He's our light, and you're not
gonna see one stitch of darkness. All right, amen. You're dismissed.